


Basement

by KoruChaos



Category: Friday Night Funkin' (Video Game), Spooky Month (Short Films - Sr Pelo)
Genre: Gen, I've forgotten how to tag but here we go, Monster goes through various forms between chapters, Monster is weird but not evil, Wrapping Presents, christmas stuff i guess, headcanons galore, indeterminate timeframe, more tba later, no beta we die like my braincells
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29504808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoruChaos/pseuds/KoruChaos
Summary: There's something living in Skid's basement.
Relationships: Skid & Lila, Skid & Monster (Friday Night Funkin'), Skid & Pump
Comments: 33
Kudos: 112





	Basement

Skid doesn't like going to the basement, but he has to today. He needs to wrap a present for his mom, and all the wrapping paper is in the basement.

The basement is too quiet and too cold. At least in the attic you can always hear the wind, and some heat creeps up from the rooms beneath. That doesn't happen in the basement, where the walls are backed by dirt and the floor is a flat sheet of concrete. The only noises down there are footsteps from above and the ominous creaking of the floorboards atop the ceiling.

That, and it's too Christmas-y for him. The tree, the tinsel, the ornaments, they're all down here. The Halloween decorations are all in a broom closet upstairs so they can be accessed easier, so the only holiday things down in the basement are all for holidays Skid doesn't like.

Or at least, that's what he remembers. For some reason, there is a jack-o-lantern in the middle of the room now. Skid would be happy about that if not for the fact that he knows it should be rotting by now, because his mom doesn't get plastic jack-o-lanterns.

It doesn't look normal either, not by a longshot. There's red stuff leaking from the mouth, like what Pump looks like when someone makes him laugh in the middle of eating Gushers, and there's actual eyes where the eyeholes should be. They'd almost be funny if it didn't look like every blood vessel in them had exploded.

Skid frowns, forces himself to stop shivering, and makes his way towards the wrapping paper. He isn't as confident as he'd like to be when Pump isn't around, so the jack-o-lantern unsettles him way more than he thinks it should.

He only takes three steps before the top of the jack-o-lantern pops off of its own accord and something shoots up out of the empty shell. He barely manages to stifle a scream, though he still falls over in surprise. He stares up at the creature, and bloody eyes stare back.

Frankly, it isn't quite as scary as he'd thought it'd be. It's just sort of a black cone with a lumpy head. The eyes are lopsided, as if one of them got stuck in one of the pumpkin's eyeholes, and there's a bizarre whorl of upright teeth along its body that Skid really doesn't like, but it isn't as bad as some of the other things he's seen. Eyes really scared him at first, but this thing's just a little unsettling, that's all.

It leans forwards slightly. Its base doesn't move at all, but its back bends too far to be natural as it studies him. Its face gets a little too close to his for a second, but he can hardly process it before it's standing upright again.

“W-What are you doin' down here?” Skid asks as he shakily gets back to his feet. He takes another step back, still eyeing the wrapping paper but too nervous to try and get it until he knows if this monster is as friendly as most of the others he's met.

It blinks owlishly at him, its eyes shutting at separate intervals. “I could ask the same of you,” it responds with a quiet chuckle. “It's a bit late for a child to be out of bed, don't you think?”

Well, at least its- his?- voice isn't as bad as its appearance. “I was gonna wrap a present for my mom,” Skid says. “I wanna do it when she's asleep so she won't see what it is.” He glances at the door, suddenly exclaiming “Aw man, I left it upstairs!” All thoughts of the new guest forgotten for a moment, he runs upstairs to get the box and bring it back to the basement, only to freeze all over again when the monster is still there.

“How considerate of you,” the monster hums, bobbing his head. He seems slightly amused at how scared Skid is. He turns around to face the wrapping paper, his neck making an upsetting cracking noise as he does so, and asks “Which wrapping paper were you going to use?”

“The one with the kittens on it,” Skid says, walking a little closer. “She really likes cats.” The monster looks back at him for a second when he realizes he's back, but makes no move to hurt him.

A long, spindly arm ending in two claw-tipped fingers detaches from the monster's main body and reaches towards the wrapping paper, extending the several feet needed to get there so he can look through the patterns. He eventually finds the one with the kittens on it and hands it to Skid, asking “Is it this one?”

Skid nods and takes the paper from the monster's hand. “Yeah, thank you,” he says awkwardly. The monster's arm returns to his side and melds back into his body as the bottom lids of his eyes crease up, making it look a bit like he's smiling at Skid.

He has to go looking for the tape and scissors, but Skid finds them quickly enough and sits down on the cold floor to begin the frustrating process of wrapping the present. The monster watches curiously as Skid fumbles with the tube of paper, a frown of concentration on the child's face. “Do you need help with that?” the monster asks after a few minutes of little progress. There's an amused tone to his voice, but Skid is too frustrated to care at this point and just scoots the half-wrapped present over to his companion.

The monster picks the present up and stares at it for a moment, then starts folding the paper in ways that Skid has never seen and can't understand. It seems to help though, because the present is wrapped up in no time at all. It isn't the prettiest, but it looks about like what Skid would've been able to do on his own after several more minutes. The present is handed back with a small bow and a flourish, the monster chuckling when Skid returns the bow. “What's in there, anyways?” the monster hums, tilting his head to the side.

Skid's expression suddenly turns quite serious. “You promise you won't tell?” he whispers. When the monster nods, Skid breathes a sigh of relief and says “It's a stuffed animal. Mom really wants a cat, but we can't get one because I sneeze all the time when I'm around one, so I got a kitty plushie for her.”

The monster does that weird head bobbing thing again, his voice quite happy when he says “That's actually very sweet of you. I can't say I've met very many kids as nice as you.” Then, tapping his claw against his chin, he adds “Not that I've met very many kids in the first place, I suppose. They usually run away or faint before I can say anything to them.”

Skid shrugs and smiles slightly. “You scared me a little at first,” he admits, “but you're really nice. I'd be less scared if Pump was here, though.” He frowns a little. “I'm scared by a lot of things when he isn't around, and he's scared by a lot of things when I'm not around.”

The monster nods. “Unsurprising,” he says. “Most people are more easily scared when they're on their own, even adults. The world can be a scary place, but it's better when there's others who can help if needed.” He laughs, continuing “I have a friend who was like that for a long time, pretty much until he got married. Good musician, though, even then. I helped with some of his early songs back in the day.”

“Really?” Skid asks. “What do adults get scared of?” Perking up a little, he excitedly asks “And what songs did you guys make?”

“Taxes,” the monster says bluntly. “Adults are scared of taxes and their kids getting lost.” He looks up at the ceiling, apparently trying to think of something, then shrugs. “Honestly, I don't quite remember any of them well enough to even hum them. I'm sure they're on records somewhere, but they were never released on any albums that I know of. My bad.”

Skid pouts a little, but doesn't complain. He can barely remember what happened three days ago, so he has no reason to get upset when someone else can't either. “How long ago was that, anyways?”

The monster's expression seems to change to something like a smile. “Gosh, I'm not totally sure anymore! Hmm... twenty, thirty years? It's been a very long time. I could ask if he still has any of those records around next time I talk to him, if you'd like that.”

Skid grins and nods excitedly. “Yeah, yeah! Please? That'd be so cool! Are any of them spooky?”

“A few of them, yes,” the monster laughs. “Mostly only the ones where I had to sing; my friend was still in his sappy phase back then, and didn't quite have enough power in his vocals to do much more intense than croon at the time. He did sing some lovely ballads, though.” He tilts around to look at the clock next to the Christmas tree, then hums “You should go to bed. It's nearly two in the morning and you've got your present wrapped.”

Skid glances at the clock too, trying his best to stifle a yawn and failing miserably. Cradling the present to his chest, he asks “You're still gonna be here tomorrow, right? I want you to meet Pump, I think you'd like him. He's really nice.”

“I'll be here as long as you want me to be,” the monster says, patting Skid's head. “Now please get some sleep, I'm sure you have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow.”

Skid smiles and hugs the monster as best as he can with one arm still around his mom's present before going to stumble back upstairs. He still feels a little put out about what happened with Moloch, but this seems to be going much better already.

The monster watches as Skid leaves, then pulls himself back into his jack-o-lantern. If he's going to meet another child soon, he should probably make himself a little less intimidating for next time.

**Author's Note:**

> oh look a new fandom, let's see how long I can keep myself updating this
> 
> ALSO I apologize for horribly OOC characters, I haven't written anything for fandoms in like a month and I'm just terrible at writing anyways. I basically just want Mr. Lemonhead to befriend the Spooky Boys and for shit to _not_ go horribly wrong like they did with Moloch. Poor Dexter just wanted to catch some rats.
> 
> psst, if you have any questions about this/things you'd like to say, please do post a comment, I'll try to respond as quick as I can (and if I don't I didn't miss your comment, I just couldn't/can't think of anything to say bc I only have three braincells and they're all using each other to play Pong)


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